by Anthony Advincula of New America Media
While Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) can be the force to reckon with only if majority of them exercise their right to vote in the coming election, according to AAPI elected officials here.
AAPIs are the fastest growing minority group in the United States, but according to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, “We are still suffering from the 50 percent turnout as supposed to a bigger number of Asian voters.” Lee delivered his message on Wednesday morning at the AAPI caucus at the Democratic National Convention. “We need to increase this turnout in our community, especially in this election.”
In 2008, only 48 percent of AAPI registered voters turned out to vote, according to the latest U.S. census data. This turnout made them the lowest registered group of voters as compared to 62 percent of all Americans.
Lee, the first Asian American to be elected to the office, told the APPI caucus that Asian Americans—whether Japanese, Pakistani, Indian, Indonesian, Filipinos or Chinese—should expand their participation in the political process and “talk more about the important issues that address the needs of the Asian community.”
“We need to keep our doors open—to make our community more well represented,” he said.
Former Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta concurred that if majority of AAPI voters would participate in the coming election, APPI will have a significant impact, particularly on Pres. Obama’s possible reelection in November.
“There are about 4.3 million AAPI registered voters—and 62 percent of them are Democrat registered voters,” he said outside the room where the caucus was taking place. “If more and more of our voters come out during the election, AAPI vote is going to be a marginal victory for the Democrats.”
The Obama party, Mineta added, could capitalize on the first-time AAPI voters since about 86 percent of them voted for Obama four years ago.
The AAPI caucus was attended by several high-ranking AAPI elected officials from different states and cities, including Sen. Daniel Inouye (HI), Congressman Mike Honda (CA) and Congresswoman Judy Chu (CA). Second Lady Jill Biden and Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obama’s younger sister, also delivered a short remark during the two-hour caucus.
But Peter Leung, a Chinese American delegate from Oregon, was less optimistic, admitting that AAPI votes are not crucial in the U.S. elections.
“We don’t have that power yet—not in politics,” he said, sitting with fellow Asian delegates during the caucus at the national convention. “And we can’t achieve that power through conversations like this.”
Despite the growing AAPI population, Asian Americans still have a “small voice in politics” and thus need a bigger platform to empower and help them engage in national political activities.
“Even at this convention, the Asian caucus is clearly empty as compared to the Black and Latino caucuses,” Leung said. “I think Asians do not benefit from the civil rights movement. We care about science and technology, but not politics.”
This article was originally published by New America Media. Reprinted with permission.
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You also totally took the “we don’t vote” out of context. This article was about how we don’t show up to vote. RTFA.
Keum Ran, I don’t disgrace Korean Americans, grow up. I do a lot in the community. Have a beer, we’ll talk about it. But don’t start up with who disgraces what. Be bigger than that.
The DREAM Act was OK, depends where you stand with immigration. I have to tell you, Asians don’t make up any large influx of issues with illegal immigration that could really account for an epidemic. We are or are close to the smallest minority in America. Time to face the facts on that.
And to Abby, we would first need to establish what our common goals are. I simply don’t see a common denominator other than being Asian… and being in America. That’s not a big selling point for most folks.
I don’t agree with Matthew’s conclusion but he does have a legitimate premise. Asians in Asia do not identify themselves as “Asian.” They identify themselves as the people of the countries they are from i.e. Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc. Lumping people from all of the Asian countries together under a single title of “Asian-American” is unique classification that happens in the US. Therefore, acting collectively under the big umbrella of being “Asian” is a new and perhaps a foreign title to many first generation Asians. This is not true of second or third generation Asians since they grow up in the States being identified as “Asian.” I believe there should be greater efforts to bring our diverse communities together to help achieve our goals of being better represented in this nation.
It’s unfortunate you feel that way, Matthew. What about the DREAM Act? You dishonor millions of people who want to be citizens and millions of people who have fought and died for the right to vote. You disgrace Korean Americans. You may be interested in moving to North Korea . . .
If you’re a citizen, think about all the people who wish they could! Make your voice heard in 2012!
The Asian Community as they like to say, is not a real community. It’s basically the Chinese Community, the Korean Community, Japanese, etc etc. — those are their own distinct communities with no common denominator in leadership. There aren’t really any tangible “Asian” issues that really impact us as a group that we can all agree upon. A prime example of this is the redistrict hot topic in Koreatown that really only affects the Korean population, which is marginal compared to the Latino population.
This is not to say it’s a bad thing either, we just don’t really have the same issues other groups may have. I have spent the last years reading Asian American themed websites, and quite frankly if we have any problems, they’re not that bad in comparison. This is why the media generally doesn’t pay attention to us. We’re just not troubled in any hardcore identifiable ways.
Take for example issues on culture. Big deal. It’s a small impact that almost every other group living in America has gone through, and we’re some of the last dealing with it. This isn’t like sky high unemployment in other communities. I, being American Korean and knowing as many other Asians as I do, cannot name any at the moment who are totally unemployed. They seem to just have some part-time gig to hold them over, but the only crisis call I ever get is when family from overseas is coming to stay — and that’s really a minor thing in my opinion.
So big deal if we don’t vote. What’s in it for us, anyhow? Are we going to gain more rights? Don’t we have rights? We have a generally small footprint on America, and if there are LGBT issues, they generally separate that from being an “Asian American issue” — so we kinda lose that.
Primary issues in the Korean American community are language barriers, having a good education, cultural gaps, finding their identity in America… these are just very minor things that the outside does not care about, and quite frankly a lot of us internally do not care much about either — they just aren’t hot topics.